Wednesdays
by RiaAndHerCourt
Summary: Suburbia AU, where Manon meets Asterin.
1. The First Wednesday

Wednesday. Manon enjoyed Wednesdays. Grandmother attended city council meetings for three hours every week, every Wednesday. As of her seventh birthday, a few weeks ago, Grandmother told her she was now old enough to be left unattended in those evenings. It wasn't terribly different from before with her sitter. Her sitter, Shynna, simply read in the living room for those hours. As long as Manon was quiet, she could do whatever she pleased for those three hours. Sometimes, she considered slipping out into the suburbs and not returning until after Grandmother caught Shynna slacking off, but that would get Manon in as much trouble as Shynna. And it was never good to be on Grandmother's bad side.

This Wednesday was overcast, but late enough in the spring season that the sun still shone through the clouds even in the evening. Manon, having finished her chores, looked out the living room window. She was observing. A few birds flew overhead. The people across the street had their TV on. Her neighbor's big, mean dog was barking at the birds. The stupid thing barked at its own shadow half the time, Manon suspected. She turned her gaze farther away. The house diagonally across from hers had toys littered across the front lawn, at least the part that wasn't hidden by a fence. The house belonged to one of Grandmother's fellow councilors. A girl lived there too, Manon's age to the year. Iskra. Iskra who had been left home alone during council meetings since about a week after Grandmother had granted Manon the privilege. Iskra who flaunted whatever gaudy tutu she was going to a recital in. Iskra who left her toys in carelessly scattered, an act that would lead to the destruction of Manon's toys if she did that in front of Grandmother.

Manon narrowed her eyes.

Iskra whose shadow was just peeking out from behind the fence, with a leg swinging back and forth in a distinct kicking motion.

Manon slid from her seat, barely even rustling the pillows, and slipped out the door. She made her way across the street, letting her feet glide across the pavement that she crossed with quick glances back and forth.

Manon was barely to the other side when she heard the muffled cries. Someone was crying between gasps of pain. Manon was unaccustomed to people making these sounds, but she did not falter. She moved until she was positioned a few feet behind Iskra, her shadow falling away from her leaving no hint for Iskra to realize Manon was so close.

The source of the cries was another local girl, Asterin. Manon knew less about Asterin than she knew of Iskra. She had never been introduced, and Grandmother had never implied that Manon should spend time with Asterin. Still, she'd noticed her. The golden-haired girl wandered around the neighborhood frequently without a sitter. Manon had never noticed her mother or father with her.

Currently, Asterin's yellow hair was near brown from dirt. Asterin herself was in fetal position, hands hugging her stomach as Iskra drew back for kick after kick.

"You're useless," Iskra said with a kick.

Asterin coughed.

"And filthy," Iskra gloated with another kick.

Asterin choked on a sob.

"You're ug-gah!"

 _Smack!_

Iskra didn't finish her third insult, for just as she pulled back her leg, Manon kicked the shin of her other leg, causing Iskra to fall backwards and screech.

"Now that," Manon purred, "would be a lie."

Asterin crawled away from the fallen Iskra, who lay crying, and pulled herself up as best she could. Manon deftly walked around her neighbor and helped Asterin up. Once Asterin was on her feet, she insisted on supporting her own weight. After all, Iskra had been kicking her stomach, not her legs. Manon let her, with only a pause before she let go. They moved back around Iskra, who kept making a commotion.

"I'll tell!" Iskra screamed.

Manon walked, Asterin followed.

"I'm gonna get you!"

Iskra's words fell on deaf ears; Manon crossed the street with a quick glance, and Asterin followed.

Manon lead Asterin into her house, mindful that Grandmother would not be home for another two hours. She instructed the injured girl to sit on the couch and then fetched the band aids from the bathroom.

Upon her return, Asterin composed herself, with a small smile at Manon.

Manon looked at her for a moment, and then handed Asterin the band aids.

"Thank you," Asterin said as she applied the bandages.

"You're welcome."

"For more than these," Asterin continued, waving one at her.

"You're welcome."

"I'll return the favor next time," Asterin rambled.

"To me or to Iskra?"

Asterin smiled a bit wider. "Both."

Manon scoffed a little, but nodded slightly at Asterin's words. With a plunk, Manon took a seat next to the girl and just stared at her. She did not ask Asterin about her parents; she did not ask why Iskra kicked her. She just observed.

"You know the witch is gonna tattle, right?" Asterin said.

"It doesn't matter," Manon replied. It really didn't.

Asterin gazed at Manon for a moment, with such stillness it was almost as if Manon was staring at a statue.

A moment later, Asterin stood up shakily. Still, she clapped Manon on the shoulder.

"Next time," she smiled.

And Manon, unable to help herself, smiled back.


	2. The Second Wednesday

That same year Manon turned eight, Halloween fell on a Wednesday. Grandmother had a meeting, as usual, between six and nine. Given that those were the prime trick-or-treating hours, Manon couldn't go around the neighborhood even if she wanted to. Not that she did want to, of course. Grandmother had explained that it was a stupid holiday.

" _Manon," she had said a few years ago, "All Hallow's Eve used to have a meaning, back when the peasants needed to believe they could personally ward off evil. Now, superstitions like that are stupid and pointless. The only scary thing on Halloween is the amount of cavities that develop."_

 _Manon hadn't been particularly interested in Halloween anyway, so she nodded like the good granddaughter she was._

Since then, Manon stayed in on Halloween. Grandmother posted a sign on the door saying there was no candy to be found, and if any hopeful child was foolish enough to ring the doorbell, Grandmother pointedly told the parents time would be better spent teaching their child to read.

This evening, Grandmother had paused before heading out to her meeting.

"I expect you to stay in tonight, Manon. No leaving the house while I'm gone."

Manon nodded, not needing to wonder why the extra warning had been given. Ever since Manon had begun her tentative friendship with Asterin-tentative on Manon's side, a whirlwind on Asterin's-Grandmother had given many repetitive warnings to Manon. Though she never vocalized her disapproval, which Manon reasoned must mean it wasn't _that_ bad, Manon has been given regular warnings for obvious things. _Turn the lights off at nine, set your alarm, do your homework…_ Manon never failed at any of the tasks, but Grandmother constantly reminded her anyway. _No leaving the house_. Manon hadn't planned to anyway; she was going to peek out and watch the trick-or-treaters from the window. Just once, she figured.

After Manon nodded, Grandmother walked out the door and shortly after she heard the sound of the car pulling out of the driveway. Before Manon could head to the living room, there was a knock at the door. Not trick or treaters, Manon knew, because it was the distinct tap-tap-pause-tap that Asterin used. For a second, Manon hesitated. Grandmother had been lenient, for Manon wasn't foolish enough to believe she didn't know Manon sometimes left the house on Wednesdays, but she could still punish Manon for disobeying tonight.

"Man _on_ ," Asterin whined through the door. "Lemme _in_."

Though Manon wouldn't admit it, Asterin was sometimes more persuasive than Grandmother. She opened the door.

Asterin grinned at her. She was clad in all red: red devil horn headband, red jumpsuit, red trident, red cloak, even red shoes.

"Well," Manon drawled, "don't you look...devilish."

Asterin grinned wider, stepping inside.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Go where?"

Asterin rolled her. "To Brazil. Trick-or-treating, dummy."

Manon's face, which hadn't actually gone into a full smile but had been on its way there, fell. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"Oh," Manon affirmed.

"Oh meaning what?" Asterin prodded.

"Oh meaning I can't go."

"Why?"

"Grandmother says I can't. So I can't. So oh."

Asterin scrunched her nose, the way she always did when she was "thinking." More like plotting, honestly.

"Well," she said, "it's Wednesday. Your grandma isn't here."

"But Grandmother said _no_ ," Manon grumbled.

"But," Asterin grinned conspiratorially at Manon, "it's Wednesday. We can go trick-or-treating and come back before she even knows you left! Besides, it's never stopped you before."

 _But this was different,_ Manon nearly cried. _Grandmother had been really, really explicit._ And yet… and yet Asterin was Manon's first kinda-sorta friend. And thought they'd been friends for a few months and Asterin seemed to really like Manon, trick-or-treating or not, Manon didn't want to upset her. _What if she hates me for it,_ a tiny voice cried in Manon's head. But… but Grandmother…

"I don't have a costume," Manon muttered.

Asterin didn't reply right away. She just stared at Manon.

Manon glanced down at herself. Black shirt, black pants, black socks. Unless she wanted to get hit by a car and go as roadkill, her outfit was hardly suitable for Halloween. But when she looked up again, Asterin gave her an easy smile.

Without a word, Asterin untied her red hooded cape and swung it around Manon. After fumbling for a minute (Asterin wore velcro shoes for a reason) she managed to tie a lopsided knot.

Manon frowned again. "You don't have to ruin your costume for me, it's o-"

"I'm not ruining it. The cape doesn't really match anyway, because you can't see my tail with it," Asterin exclaimed, swinging around and wiggling her butt (and the pronged devil tail attached to it) at Manon.

Manon giggled, and Asterin smiled at her.

"Grab a pillow case and then let's _go,_ " Asterin instructed.

Manon ran upstairs and pulled the case off of her pillow. From the top of the stairs, she asked if Asterin needed one.

"Nah," she called back. "I was thinking we could share, if that's okay with you."

Manon smiled a little wider and then ran down the stairs.

Manon and Asterin roamed the neighborhood for an hour, clutching the half filled bag between them. They'd hit most of the houses, skipping the ones Manon knew would probably casually mention Manon's outing to Grandmother. After a solid loop around, they wound up back at Manon's house. Blissful energy between them, they sat on Manon's front porch and began to munch on the candies. Asterin ate indiscriminately, but Manon was more cautious. The sugary sweets were unfamiliar to Manon. Eventually, she opted to follow Asterin's lead and picked up one of the top packages.

They sat for a few minutes in silence save the sounds of chewing, watching all the other children go around.

Asterin broke the silence. "Ya know, Manon, we've only done half of what we're supposed to."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It's not called treating… it's called _trick-_ or-treating. Which means we gotta do some tricks too."

Manon didn't argue that the word was or, not and, because her eyes went to the exact same place as Asterin's. Iskra's house.

Iskra hadn't directly bothered Asterin or Manon after that say. But at school, Iskra and Asterin were in the same class, and according to Asterin, she never missed an opportunity to put Asterin down or say something under her breath. She was always in full view of a teacher, so it wasn't like Asterin could do anything. Plus Iskra had played some tricks of her own, taking Asterin's colored pencils, throwing her homework out, and tripping her. All of which were not-so-very-accidental accidents.

Manon and Asterin turned to each other and shared massive, devilish grins.

Though they were not the most original pranksters, the duo was thorough. Manon grabbed six rolls of toilet paper-the good, thick, plushy, stuff-and handed half to Asterin. Nonchalantly, they crossed the street. There were about fifteen people in four groups on the street, not counting them. This meant they couldn't be too obvious.

They started in the back, winding the paper around the bushes and chairs, out of the view of the neighborhood. Thier luck was impeccable. Iskra had been grounded for the past week. Manon didn't know what for, exactly, but it must've been bad. However, Iskra always used that exact tree to sneak out on Wednesdays when grounded. Manon never tattled, though she'd considered it on more than one occasion. Still, this meant Iskra was somewhere else, the window open, and the tree obviously viable for some good old fashioned pranking.

Manon was taller than Asterin, and it fell to her to climb the tree. It was difficult, but Manon managed. It took Asterin two tries to toss a roll up, but eventually Manon was armed with the roll of white tissue and slipped into the room.

As Manon diligently covered everything she could, wrapping the paper in every nook and cranny before it ran out, she realized the perfection of the prank: Iskra couldn't complain, because she'd have to admit to sneaking out. If anything, she'd have to try and clean up before her mother returned. Manon cacked, slipping out from the window and began to descend from the tree.

However, Manon was much more adept at climbing up than down, because once she was about six feet off the ground, she slipped. Thankfully, a certain blonde devil stood directly under her, cushioning Manon's fall.

"Sorry," Manon said, pulling up her fallen friend.

"It'th okay," Asterin lisped, "I thaid I'd return the favor."

Asterin coughed.

"I think I thwallowed my tooth."

Manon checked her mouth, and sure enough, one of the top teeth was missing.

"Sorry," she said again.

Asterin just laughed. In her mind, there was nothing to forgive.

Quickly after, the duo lightly covered the front, trying to do little enough that it wouldn't be noticed at a glance, but enough that it wouldn't be easy to get rid of. With a final giggle, they crossed back over, silent as shadows.

They said good night shortly after; Manon rushed inside with a half hour before Grandmother's arrival. Asterin had insisted Manon keep the cape, and though Manon didn't have the words for it, it made something inside her very, very happy. She carefully hid the cape in the bottom of her toy chest, replaced the pillow case, and brushed the chocolate off her teeth. She wished she could see Iskra's face when she was her bedroom. When Grandmother eventually came home, Manon was reading in the living room as if she'd been there all night.

"You stayed home all night, right, Manon?" were her first words.

"Yes, Grandmother," Manon replied nonchalantly.

"Good," was her only reply.

Manon closed her book. "Good night, Grandmother."

"Good night, Manon. Lights out in a half hour. You have to get up early tomorrow, so don't stay up late."

"Yes, Grandmother," Manon said, scurrying up the steps.

When Manon got into bed, she lay awake for nearly two hours with a goofy smile on her face as she replayed the events of the evening.

She was really, really lucky to have a best friend like Asterin.

And then she fell asleep.


End file.
